More bold art by Ham Village Green

Ham Village Green is gradually being surrounded by bold colourful art, and I like it.

First there was the mural on the Ashburnham Road end of the shops, then the Ham Youth Centre joined in and now the other end of the parade of shops has been brightened up with the addition of a tree, some flowers, a butterfly, a bird and a few bees.

Wild garden in Burnell Avenue

I walk in the area around Teddington Lock regularly and usually this means going along the tow path as that is the prettiest route but I also like to explore all the highways and byways in Ham and so I also walk along Burnell Avenue from time to time.

I find it something of an odd road as almost every house has been extended or changed differently and so it lacks coherence and with house on only one side of the road it lacks something of a sense of place too.

Among the jumble of houses is this one where the front garden has been allowed to grow even more wild than mine.

Vintage Wedding Dresses has arrived

The lone shop at the top end of Ham Parade has now been taken over by Vintage Wedding Dresses. In an attempt to improve its visibility the shop has gone for an unusual split pink/grey colour scheme with the two colours clashing down the centre of the door. I like it and I hope that it works for them.

Autumn brings reds to Ham

I might as well give up on giving up on taking Autumnal pictures as every year I end up taking several despite my best intentions not too. This year though I have managed to temper my picture taking a little and selected just three taken during a short walk to sum up the mood and the colour of the season.

Langham House gets featured, not for the first time, because of its wonderful ivy.

Venturing along Ham Street these reds and greens demanded my attention because of the way that they were presented against a plain mottled background.

Further along the road and then off to the side to walk behind Beaufort House, I found a wall of leaves that were each choosing their own time to change producing a mix of colours from light green to dark red.

Princess Alice Hospice shop on Ham Parade

This was Giftbox for almost forever and then was empty for a while and now it is a Princess Alice Hospice shop.

I have mixed feelings about this. Almost any shop is better than an empty space but I miss Giftbox and we already have one charity shop just  few doors up the Parade. This is not  shop that I expect to visit, whereas Giftbox was, so it is dead-zone to me, as are the estate agents and bookies. These places bring some colour to the Parade but not much life.

Green space by Burnell Avenue

There is much to like about Ham and high on my list is the amount of green space that there is. A lot of this comes under the broad heading of Ham Lands, that ribbon of open space that borders the river all the way round the large curve from Lower Ham Road to River Lane.

Ham Lands has various characters from the untamed to the domesticated and this section is one of the tamer ones and is often used for games and picnics. There was something happening on the day that I took that and almost hidden by the trees in the centre of a picture is a marquee and  small gathering of people around it.

Cottages in Wiggins Lane

The little row of neat white cottages in Wiggins Lane is one of Ham's nice surprises.There are some other similar looking cottages in the area, especially in Ham Street, but these have the advantage of being hidden away from casual visitors and of not being blighted by cars on a busy road.